The use of solar energy generation has typically been confined to fixed structural collection systems such as that installed on rooftops of dwellings and other structures as well as “solar farms” that comprise acres of solar collection panels placed on large areas of land. The use of solar panels within other structures such as roadways/railways has typically been limited due to the problems in optimally gathering solar energy from the panels, providing a ruggedized form factor for the solar panels, providing a reliable mechanism for interconnecting the panels, and high labor costs associated with installing the panels on a roadway/railway or other transportation surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,428,417 issued on Apr. 23, 2013 for “MODULAR SOLAR COLLECTOR SYSTEM AND METHOD” details a modular solar collection element as detailed in FIG. 1 (0100)-FIG. 3 (0300). This solar collection element is specifically designed to be individually combined to direct solar radiation for collection by a heat collector or solar collector. As depicted in FIG. 4 (0400), these collected individual elements may be used to form solar collector arrays on flat surfaces or on roadway surfaces. However, this formation is not suitable for planar solar arrays as the solar energy in this configuration must traverse laterally along the solar collector. Furthermore, since the solar collectors must be individually combined to form the solar panel, the use of this system in large roadways and other large flat surfaces is quite expensive due to the amount of manual labor required for installation.